Borderlands (VI)

There is a fresh and bizarre footnote to the loss of the eastern civil parishes of Abrene. Latvia is embroiled in a stunning scandal once again -- the sale of perhaps a hundred passports to wealthy individuals, mostly Russian citizens seeking to take advantage of Latvia's EU and Schengen membership. The Baltic Times has a brief article on the subject here. This latest episode of corruption, which may well involve the highest levels of the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, was a deal worth at least seven million euros.

In Diena, the filmmaker and pundit Laila Pakalniņa adds fascinating detail -- apparently, no apparatchik noticed that many a millionaire suddenly hailed from Abrene (according to the falsified data on these fictitious citizens). If they had, either the crime would have been discovered -- or the area we've now recognized as merely "magical" wouldn't have been handed to Russia so smoothly, what with its wealth (in reality, it was the poorest part of interbellum Latvia and is now an impoverished Russian backwater, Pytalovo).

But what can one expect in a country with so many prosperous corpses?

My previous post has links to all of my posts on border issues. The photograph of a 1930s Latvian passport is from the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs.

The Roma Programme

I've been translating the National Action Plan for Latvia’s Roma (for the Secretariat of the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration, AKA the Integration Ministry). Made me glad that I resisted the temptation to translate for Brussels—sifting through reams of legislation (decrees, directives, recommendations, judgments, findings, etc.) in such a structure, the inane complexity of which can be illustrated by the fact that the Council of Europe and the European Council have nothing to do with each other, would have made me hang myself within a few months!

The Programme, though, is a worthy endeavor, and I happen to know that's so because numerous Roma (the p.c. term for Gypsies, who supposedly also consider "čigāni" to be “slightly derogatory") live across the street from us—they’ve been taking advantage of things like free computer courses and small business loans, and they’re thrilled. They are active in one of the NGOs. The sad fact is that despite their abilities (including knowing Latvian better than any minority except the Livonians, who are practically extinct), ca. 98% of Latvia’s Gypsies are unemployed. A huge proportion of our illiterates are Gypsies, most Gypsies have little or no formal education, and about half of the population in Latvia would not like to live near Gypsies (which percentage drops significantly, and tellingly, among those who actually do live near Gypsies).

Then there is their basic vulnerability—Russians have Russia, Jews have Israel, Livs have Estonia... Gypsies have nowhere (a few years ago, some presented a rather postmodern proposal—to join the EU as a nation without a territory).

Not that Gypsies are angelic, of course—it’s a very long and historic two-way street (or the shoulder of a divided highway, with roadkill) full of self-fulfilling stereotypes… I mean, if you won’t hire Gypsies because they steal, they’ll have to steal (or, as in Rīga, get involved in the drug trade—they don’t run it [look to “Caucasians,” especially Chechens, for “Mr. Big"], but not a few are “employed” in it). Getting them to go to school is notoriously difficult. The Programme will train Gypsy teaching assistants for preschools, popularize education, encourage employers’ associations to network with Gypsy NGOs, try to dispel stereotypes among Latvians, and get the Gypsies representation when they are discriminated against.

Last but not least, it will also assist them culturally and in “preserving their identity”—the latter is an interesting thing, because the bigotry directed towards them has obviously assisted them in that regard; without a land and with no aid until recently, their identity still flourishes. I’ve not yet met a Rom who doesn’t speak Romani, despite their centuries of wandering through foreign lands. And then there’s their clairvoyance…

A study of Latvia's Roma is available here. The photograph is of a Roma "king" in Romania, details here. My post was originally a response to Irēna at Latvians Online.